Allergen matrix generator

Paste your menu or photograph it, and get a dish-by-dish draft across the 14 regulated UK allergens. Anything that depends on your recipe is not guessed at - it is asked about.

Your menu

Printed at the top of the PDF.

Sections and dish names are enough. Prices and descriptions are fine to leave in.

What is an allergen matrix?

An allergen matrix is a grid: every dish on your menu down one side, the fourteen regulated UK allergens across the top, and a mark in every single box. It is the document a chef reaches for when a customer asks what is in the burger sauce, and the one a manager hands over when an environmental health officer asks how allergen information is controlled. A menu description will not do the job - "chicken Caesar" says nothing about the anchovies in the dressing or the egg in the mayonnaise.

An EHO expects to see a chart that covers the whole menu, is dated, matches the recipes actually being cooked, and has no gaps. Gaps are the dangerous part. A blank cell is read by whoever is holding the chart as "this dish is free from that allergen", when in reality it usually means nobody got round to checking. That is why this generator never leaves a box empty: every cell is either contains, not expected, or an explicit CHECK waiting on someone in your kitchen to confirm it.

How this generator works

The 14 UK regulated allergens

These fourteen must be declared on every dish you serve, prepacked or not. Most allergen incidents come from the second column rather than the first - the version of the allergen nobody expected to be in there.

Stalks, leaves, seeds and celeriac - including celery salt in stocks, soups and bouillon.

Wheat, rye, barley and oats - so flour, breadcrumbs, pasta, batter, soy sauce and most thickened gravies.

Prawns, langoustines, crab and lobster - including shellfish stock and prawn crackers.

Mayonnaise, aioli, fresh pasta, meringue, batters and egg wash on pastry.

Obvious on a fillet, hidden in Worcestershire sauce, Caesar dressing, fish sauce and some stocks.

Lupin flour and seeds turn up in some breads, pastries and gluten-free flour blends.

Butter, cream, cheese, yoghurt, ghee and milk powder - including the butter a steak is basted in.

Mussels, clams, squid, oysters, snails - and oyster sauce in an Asian marinade.

Mustard seeds, powder and paste - routinely in dressings, mayonnaise, marinades and burger relish.

Almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, pecans, Brazils, pistachios, macadamias - and pesto and praline.

A legume, declared separately from nuts. Satay, groundnut oil and some curry pastes.

Burger buns, tahini, houmous, halva and sesame oil in a dressing.

Soy sauce, tofu, edamame, miso and soya lecithin in chocolate and bakery goods.

Above 10mg/kg or 10mg/litre - wine, vinegar, dried fruit and some sausages and burgers.

Natasha's Law and your legal duties

The Food Information Regulations 2014 require you to give customers allergen information for non-prepacked food - anything cooked to order, served at the counter or sold loose. You can do that in writing on the menu, or verbally, but if you rely on staff answering out loud there must be a clear, signposted written record they are reading from. An allergen matrix is that record. Since October 2021, food that is prepacked for direct sale - made and packed on the same premises it is sold from, such as a sandwich in a chiller or a wrapped cake - must additionally carry a full ingredients list on the label with every allergen emphasised. That change is Natasha's Law, brought in after the death of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse.

The legal responsibility for the accuracy of that information sits with you as the food business operator, and it cannot be delegated to a supplier, a website or a piece of software. What this tool produces is a draft: a head start that saves you the typing and flags the questions worth asking, not a compliance document. Verify every cell against your recipe specifications and your supplier ingredient sheets before any of it is shown to a customer, and redo it whenever a recipe or a supplier changes. This page is general guidance, not legal advice.

Why it asks instead of guessing

Gluten in stocks, sauces and soy sauce. Sulphites in wine, vinegar and dried fruit. Celery in bouillon. Mustard in dressings and mayonnaise. None of it appears on a menu, so none of it is ever assumed absent.

An empty box on an allergen chart reads as "safe" to whoever is holding it. That is why nothing here is ever left blank: a cell is either contains, not expected, or an explicit CHECK.

The draft is a starting point that saves you the typing, not a finished document. Walk it past your chef, check it against your recipe specifications and your supplier sheets, and only then put it in front of a customer.

Common questions

Is the generated allergen matrix legally compliant?

No - it is a draft, not a compliance document. It is generated from your menu text, so it cannot know your recipes, your suppliers or how a dish is actually made in your kitchen. You must check every cell against your recipe specifications before it goes anywhere near a customer. Under the Food Information Regulations 2014 the legal responsibility for allergen accuracy stays with you as the operator.

What are the 14 allergens I have to declare in the UK?

Celery, cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, nuts, peanuts, sesame seeds, soybeans, and sulphur dioxide and sulphites at more than 10mg per kilogram or litre. All fourteen must be declared for both prepacked and non-prepacked food.

Why does it ask me questions instead of just filling the matrix in?

Because guessing is how people get hurt. Whether a burger bun has sesame on it, whether the gravy is thickened with flour, whether the mayonnaise contains mustard - none of that is on a menu. The tool marks those cells as CHECK and asks you a plain yes or no question, and only your answer turns a cell into a free-from claim.

What does the question mark in a cell mean?

It means not assessed. It is not a claim in either direction, and it must never be read as allergen-free. Either answer the question above the matrix or verify the recipe yourself; until then that cell stays as CHECK, and it prints as CHECK on the PDF too.

Does it work from a photo of my menu?

Yes. Upload up to six photos or screenshots - PNG, JPEG or WebP, each under 8MB - and it reads the dishes off the images. Multi-page menus work: upload one photo per page and they are assessed together.

Do I have to pay or register to use it?

The matrix on screen is completely free with no account. The print-ready PDF asks for a name and email address, and that is the only thing behind a form.

Does it handle cross-contamination?

Not on its own, and no tool honestly can. Cross-contact depends on your fryers, your prep surfaces, your utensils and your staff, so it has to be assessed in your own kitchen. What the generator does do is refuse to hide the problem: anything it has not assessed comes back as a CHECK cell rather than a blank, and no dish is ever marked free from an allergen unless a human has answered the question about it.

How do I keep the allergen matrix up to date?

Rebuild it every time a recipe, a supplier or a product specification changes, and re-verify the affected dishes rather than the whole chart. That is the part a one-off document always loses. Zynthio holds allergens against the recipe itself, keeps the live allergen chart synced as ingredients change, and alerts you when a supplier spec moves - so the chart on the kitchen wall is never last season's.

Stop rebuilding the allergen chart every time the menu changes

Zynthio holds allergens on the recipe, not on a spreadsheet - so the chart, the till and the printed chart all update the moment an ingredient does. Every plan starts with a 14-day free trial.